Wits end.

After waiting 3 weeks for shipment, and having to ask for a refund to get it then, as well as being lied to about why it wasn't shipped sooner, I received my R1 today, which failed 8 minutes into the first print. The cooling fan for the hotend stopped working after 4 layers, the heater block was barely finger tight so I had drops of hot PLA falling onto the 4 layers that did print, now the hot end is plugged bottom to top with hardened plastic, so I'm positive the guide tube is trashed. I read somewhere that every printer had to do a test print before shipment, NOPE. On top of that, the spool holder didn't come with the proper screws, so I had to use a toilet paper holder while my trusty delta machine prints a proper holder. My toolkit was a scraper and tweezers. That's all. I'm asking for 2 things from you guys: 1: Give me a reason to believe in this product, because I really want to. 2: Is there anything else I should check before I repair this mess and try to fire back up?

*EDIT* I cleaned out and properly assembled the hotend, ordered a screw in thermistor, which is a mod I've done on all my printers, and must now find a replacement hotend cooling fan, for a printer I just received hours ago, on a Saturday. THANKS ROBO3D!!!!!!!

 

I'm sorry all this happened. A lot of us are very happy with it for the low cost-large build volume combination. That comes with a few sacrifices.

Yours sounds like a really bad draw. I hope you have submitted a replacement part request.

 

Hey man, when i got my robo 3d i wasnt happy about a number of things. i posted on here angrily a bunch of times, and sent aggressive emails to robo, but in the end i just had to pull up my boot straps just like you did and fix it myself. robo3d has expanded wayyyyy to fast and that has been the cause many terrible business practices. but... there is a silver lining. if you come to the forums and post any issue you have in detail we will always be able to sort it out for you. forget robo support they are useless, talk to us the guys who have delt with the same thing.

after i worked out a number of kinks in my printer and got better at using it i have finally brought my printer up to a great level of detail and reliability i just finished a 2 , 33 hour prints in a row no jams or failure. (after months of fixing such problems).

basically summed up tl;dr: you are totally justified in being mad, but i encourage you to just post what isnt working in a respectful way and we will always solve. you WILL have more problems. you WILL lose prints but you WILL get better and when your printer is in 100% functional order it will be worth it.

 

I replaced the cooling fan today, now the hotend is functioning. X axis wouldn't home, so I did some checking and the connectors on the home switch weren't crimped on, the rubber covers on the terminals were all that was holding them in place. Fixed. Now, when I home the Z axis, the left tower keeps turning until the switch housing unseats from the carriage. Thoughts? Help me Mike Kelly, you're my only hope. lol

 

Post a vid or pic?

 

I removed the limit switch from the offending side and now it homes fine. lol. Let me get it back together and I'll make a vid.

 

Well the motors are powered off the same source. Not sure what you mean by "left tower" but if one axis is spinning and the other is not it's a more serious issue. Potentially something unplugged.

What firmware does it say you're running? What printer do you have selected in your settings?

The limit switches on the Z axis work by looking for a closed circuit. This is because both switches are wired on the Normally Closed Leg. This is then activated leaving an open circuit. When the nozzle touches the bed, the nuts begin to unseat and this causes the switch to deactivate, showing a closed circuit.

Should the switch fail, both sides wires break, or the wire come unplugged at the ramps, the Z axis will not stop when it hits the bed and "throw the nuts"

Those are the electrical and mechanical failure points.

Firmware issues can cause this, such as uploading an incorrect firmware, but that tends to just result in the axis climbing up 5mm per home.

The automatic print leveling procedure in MatterControl has also shown this issue.

 

It seems to be an auto leveling issue. The machine is ignoring the set points for home set by the autolevel, and brings the carriage down until the nozzle contacts the bed, then keeps going until the nut comes completely out. I verified this by moving the print head to the right side, and it did the same thing over there. My firmware update Friday night when I hooked the printer up, I believe 1.1.4? Also, when I try to go to eeprom mapping I get this error: Oops! There is no eeprom mapping for your printers firmware.

 

1.1.4 would be the MC version, which is outdated. 1.1.7 or 8 is the latest.

If the nozzle crashes into the bed then I think that's usually a sign the calibration was pinching too tight on the paper. But we still need to know exactly what firmware you're running.

 

How do I find my version? Mattercontrol is way different than Repitier.

 

In MatterControl it's under the controls page.

Are you using Repetier-Host or MatterControl?

 

Found it, my Com port got a little screwy. ROBO3DR1AUTOV4 I use Repetier on my other printer and it's what I'm used to.

 

Ok that firmware is fine. You should be on MatterControl 1.1.5 or later. I believe they changed the way APL works in that revision.

Besides that it's probably an electrical issue. Unless the switch is bad.

 

I checked the switch and it tested fine. I'm loading a video to youtube now.

 

When you spun the nuts, was it during a home or a manual control movement?

 

I get this no matter how I calibrate.

 

It was during a home move.

 

Raise the axis, then level it from side to side so the nozzle is a papers width above the bed. Then open terminal, Filter output, and send M119

If it says "Open" on all we're in good shape.

Lift one side of the carriage so the other side switch is still triggered, send M119 again. If it reports Triggered for both sides we're good.

Of course you can also do this with a multimeter. They're two switches run in parallel, measure the circuit resistance. It should read as an open circuit.

 

I tested the switch with a meter earlier and it tested good. When I raise that side, it stays "open", the otherside raised says "triggered". I guess the wiring has an issue.

 

1 bad solder joint where the 2 switches and the plug for the board joined. Lol. I've read other posts about wiggling the wires there because of a "short", I think they need to get some solder with lead in it.